Our lender did not give us a choice in appraisers, however they required us to use Class A Appraisals who then sent it to this company. An "appraiser" named Don R. Willett came to our house to appraise the home late 2015. Our home's MLS data was manipulated by the listing agent. When an agent receives a listing they are provided with Realist data directly from the county records. Pertinent information regarding square footage is then obtained and automatically added to the MLS. Then the MLS allows an agent to make changes which changes require further disclosure. Industry standards say that only permitted sq. footage should be entered into the MLS. The liability and responsibility is clearly defined in common law here in California. Importantly, if and when a listing agent manipulated the data they have a duty to learn and disclose the discrepancy to the buyers. In an effort to keep the Real Estate industry ehtical, other agents are to report these abuses and there are rules under NAR, CAR, and common law. When an Appraiser comes out, they get the Realist Data as well. The appraiser is also OBLIGATED to verify square footage. Don completely ignored his job duties and did not verify or disclose to us the discrepancy in the Realist data. His job was to: 1) ask for permits for the extra square footage when he arrived to a home he knew to be 1680 sq. ft. but the MLS and his measurements stated it was 2008 sq. ft. or 2) deduct the not permitted illegal room addition from the appraisal, neither of which he did. We would have NEVER purchased this home knowing about this red-flag. Instead, we purchased the home paying for square footage that we can never resale, insure, or add value to without permitting the 325 sq. ft. Essentially, we paid for a 2 bedroom 1680 sq. ft. home for the price of a 2005 sq. ft. 3 bedroom with 4th bedroom option. According to the cost approach we over paid by about $47,000 - $65,000. If it weren't for the failure of the massive retaining wall with over 500 cu. ft. of non-compacted fill dirt that the seller dumped here just a couple of months prior to us viewing the home and placing an offer we would not have discovered the issue because not one single professional hired during this transaction acted within their scope. As a result of the failure of other un-engineered, faulty work of the sellers we faced major remedial damages including the loss of our septic tank. We have been fighting with the other wrong-doers for a year now and asked this company to go to mediation but they ignored our invite. Don R. Willett did not use the correct methods to appraise our home. We also received an assessment tax and pay for the illegal room addition even though the county records still say it is a 1680 sq. ft. home. This loan would have never went through because the lender does not approve illegal room additions. Overall, this appraiser used Realist records as his source but failed to accurately appraise our home. He was required to do something and failed to do so. read more
